In Maharashtra, 18 cities including Pune and Mumbai are under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), where air quality levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 have crossed national safety standards. (Representational Image)
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) will set up stations to monitor ambient air quality across the state at 40 locations in 26 cities, in the next three months. The state already has 23 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) stations and 40 more will be set up, said Dr V M Motghare, joint director, Air Pollution Control, MPCB.
At present, there are 101 monitoring stations in the state. In addition to the 23 CAAQMS, there are 78 manual monitoring stations. According to the MPCB, 40 CAAQMS will be installed in the first phase, followed by next 40 in the second phase by the end of 2020. The MPCB is also planning to increase manual monitoring stations to 126.
In Maharashtra, 18 cities including Pune and Mumbai are under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), where air quality levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 have crossed national safety standards. Authorities are planning measures to ensure 20 to 30 per cent reduction in pollution levels in the next five years. The setting up of new CAAQMS is seen as an initiative by the MPCB to provide accurate real-time data of pollution levels to implement policies strictly.